Okay, Listen Here

Okay, Listen Here

Thursday, September 30, 2010

New Adventures



Anyone who knows me will tell you that I like a nice orderly existence. Recently someone even used the word "regimented" when describing my weekly schedule. It's sort of like the chore schedule from long ago. You know--wash on Monday, iron on Tuesday, clean on Wednesday, bake on Thursday. You get the idea. On certain evenings I usually do certain things. Like eating dinner with Dr. Good Sense on Monday, working late at school on Tuesday, going to church on Wednesday,dining out with my friends in Jasper on Thursday, and now football on Fridays. I like order. I like a surprise free, drama free life.

I am not so much of an adventurer. For one thing, most adventures happen outside, where there are bugs, dirt and all of that outside air. Another problem with adventures is there is almost always some element of risk. What if I fail? What if I look like an idiot? What if I am so clumsy that I kill myself or worse, harm someone else?

The Oxford Dictionary defines adventure as "incident, event or occurrence; exploit, escapade, danger, peril, risk." Yeah, that sounds about right to me. Scary words. When you hear, "There was a incident." You are going to think that it wasn't something good happening, right?

Well, last weekend I went on an adventure. I traveled to Florida and went snorkeling in the ocean. You read right... I had an adventure and it was an outdoor, physical activity. If you have recovered from that massive surprise, I will give you another one-I LOVED it!

Of course, I was nervous in the beginning. It was scary to put my head under the water and yet not feel like I was breathing because I am not usually a mouth breather. But this time I wasn't using my nose at all. There is just something fundamental about wanting to get your head out of the water to take a breath. So I practiced a breathing outside of the water through the snorkel and that seemed to help calm my anxiety. On to trying to breath and swim at the same time.

Pretty quickly, I was able to swim around in the shallow water of the cove and see some pretty cool things. Let me also say that just seeing underwater was a very new thing to me. Without my glasses, I am too blind to see beneath the water and with contacts, I never want to open my eyes underwater because I am afraid the contacts would wash out. So I saw little fish, very brightly colored fish, a beautiful translucent blue jelly fish, a small sting ray, and a big crab in some rocks. I even dug up a clam and collected some shells off of the bottom of the ocean floor. It was odd that there a school of fish swam around me. The entire time I had been seeing groups of fish that swam away from me as soon as they sensed me, but this one time whatever was on the other side of the fish must have been more scary than me because they swam all around me. I could feel the water moving as they swam by but not one single fish actually touched me. It was a truly incredibly, breath taking experience.


I was thinking on the drive back home about how far outside my normal box the snorkeling adventure was and yet how amazing the experience was. It made me wonder about what sort of adventures other people have had and how they had turned out. Maybe a little adventuring in a safe environment might not always be such a bad thing after all.

What is the most adventurous experience you have ever had?

7 comments:

  1. Hiking on the Yucatan with my hubby and son to a Mayan ruin. The dense jungle and heat was kind of scary but the scariest thing were the lizards - four to five feet long! And they were friendly! My son wanted them for pets.

    I love snorkeling and just about anything to do with the ocean. I am glad you had such a good time!!!!

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  2. Everyday is an adventure, Stephanie! ;) I'm so proud of you for stepping outside your comfort zone and experiencing something new.

    I snorkeled on my honeymoon and kept hearing the echo of my breathing. Every breath made me look behind me to see if Michael Myers was there ready to hack me to pieces. And, on top of that, waves were washing over me as I was trying to swim, sans fright, over a coral reef. When I started getting pounded onto the coral and my skin started to scrape, I decided it was time to go back to shore. Now because I panicked, I didn't get to go over the coral reef and see all the brightly colored, large fish my hubby got to see. That's what happens when you chicken out. But it was my honeymoon, dog-gone-it, and I wasn't about to bloody myself over it. LOL!

    I love to be in the water as long as I can see the bottom. Swimming in lake water is completely against my grain. But there was a time that I actually water-skied in a lake. Boy, was it fun!! Nearly took my ring finger off as I was getting back into the boat and slipped back into the water, but it was worth it!

    I'm so glad you had a great time, Stephanie! You deserve some playtime after studying so hard for your master's degree. :D

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  3. I am a great boat sitter. None better. I cannot believe I am posting. I am having intermittent technical difficulty and it is not fun.

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  4. I'm with you, Jean. I always enjoyed sitting on our boat (before we sold it). That baby was like a convertible on water - fast and fun.

    Sorry about the technical difficulty.

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  5. Jean, I wish I had a boat that you could babysit for me. I've never had a boat. Guess I don't know what I'm missing. ;)

    Cheryl, I've been to the Yucatan and to Mayan ruins but I didn't have to hike to get there. We had a very nice air-conditioned bus that drove us all the way to the parking lot. LOL! It was very hot there and with my backpack, I felt like I was on safari or something. I did enjoy walking about Chichen Itza and Tulum.

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  6. Oh! I do hope your internet woes are over, Jean. :)

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  7. WOW! Y'all are an adventurous lot!

    Cheryl-That hiking sounds scary to me even without the Giant Take-Home lizards. But I can see that it would make a wonderful family memory. Lucky for me I have no family! lol

    Kathy-You are such an adventurous soul. I know you pirates are always on the look out for the next big adventure!

    Jean-You always have great stories from the boat sitting so I think that qualifies as an adventure. Probably anything involving boat drinks could turn into an adventure. :-)

    Crystal-That boat does sound fun!

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